On Chris Paul, other things
2010-08-12-Big, big ol’ four-team trade today. Here’s what interests me the most about it: the Hornets have, effectively, put all of their eggs into the CP3 basket. Collison may be a better player than Ariza straight-up, and is almost certainly a better overall package when you consider their contract situations.
But Ariza fits next to CP3, and will give him an effective wing option with some very good athleticism. (He’s also a spot-up shooter, although his ability to knock down open threes is more than a bit overrated.) As long as Chris Paul has the ball in his hands, Ariza a more effective option than Collison. (Although I will say that I was very interested to see what a Paullison backcourt would have been able to do.)
So here’s the question: did the Hornets make this move because Paul has given them reason to believe he won’t demand a trade/bolt after his contract is up, or did they make the move in an attempt to convince him to stay? And isn’t that the relevant question (that nobody has really been asking) with regards to Gilbert/LeBron? If you want to make things even more interesting on that front, consider that the Hornets now have Trevor Ariza, whom LeBron allegedly wouldn’t give an “I’m staying in Cleveland after 2010” guarantee to last off-season.
If this is the Hornets trying to pressure/guilt the franchise into giving them a commitment, shouldn’t the fact that LRMR manages Paul and LeBron is CP3’s best friend give them some pause on that front? Although I don’t want to downplay the impact of the Hornets being able to get rid of the Posey contract, the main conclusion I take away from this move is that the Hornets will give up CP3 when someone pries him from their cold, dead hands. Seeing as to how CP3 is legitimately one of the five best players in basketball and I don’t see the Hornets being contenders in the next two seasons, this could end up becoming very ugly.
-I was interested by the reaction to LeBron’s “I’m making mental notes of all the people who took shots at me” tweet. Other than THERE IS NO GOOD REASON FOR LEBRON TO HAVE A TWITTER, my main takeaway from that is this: LeBron’s move to Miami to play with Wade and Bosh, along with LRMR’s involvement in everything, has definitely advanced the “LeBron wants to live Entourage, and doesn’t really care about true greatness” storyline.
Of course, the other side of LeBron’s move to Miami is that he’s now a villain to a large proportion of the fan population. We’ve seen Kobe’s Q rating go through the roof after he embraced a “borderline sociopath” persona — will that be the narrative that takes over if Miami wins it all next season?
The counterpoint, of course, would be that the MJ archetype is that he was a sociopath with his fellow players and a Man of The People to the fans — so far, LeBron’s appeared to be the opposite.
That’s about all I have for tonight. Until tomorrow, all.
Maybe Ariza will really flourish next to a great player. The best he has played was in the playoffs with the Lakers. Maybe he can play like that again being next to Chris Paul..who knows. I do agree with MYoung though..he’s a 3rd tier SF that you just got by giving up your very best asset outside of Chris Paul. That’s bad enough, but he also happens to the play the possession that your franchise player who is probably leaving in 2 years plays and he could have been the guy to fill that major hole.
ctowhilo – Yes, Jamison was a bad contract and a mistake. The Cavs were willing to take it on believing that LeBron would stay in Cleveland if they did so. Obviously the move didn’t work, and now LeBron is gone and we are ‘stuck’ with an overpriced Jamison. (BTW – I really like Jamison’s game and character – it sad that he’s now put in this situation). MYoung23 – Ariza was far from terrible last year, he was 15/6/4 and a solid defender! Not bad for a 25 year old. He needs to improve his shot selection and accuracy, but… Read more »
Have people missed the fact that Ariza was terrible last year?
New Orleans traded their best non-Paul asset for paint chipping, 3rd tier SF. Enjoy the 13th pick in the draft New Orleans.
Nupe – the cavs mistake was signing Jamison?!?! They were shackled by James signing a 3 year deal and NOT actively recruitung FAs to join them. The only thing they could do was trade for mediocre talent. That and Jamison basically laid an egg in a cavs uniform made this deal look awful. Like it or not James had everything to do with the position the cavs were in over the last 3 years and who they signed.
My guess is that the League will impose some form of franchise player rule, similar to what the NFL does. Allow teams to keep one guy (their star) with a franchise tag that gurantees a certain rate of pay. This would help prevent some of the player movement that made the Heat possible. If Chris and Melo end up in NYC with Amare next year, then it becomes a near certainty that something like this is imposed. It’s a dual edged sword, players should be allowd to play for whomever they like but not to the detriment of the league.… Read more »
i saw that some of the big name athletes met with the nba labor committee today. i hope someone is telling them parity is important. the way is see it a league with six or so Globetrotter teams and 24 Washington Generals might be fun for the stars that band together and the fans in the those few cities, but it will surely spell contraction for the league and less jobs and money for the athletes over all.
Did the Cavs have some sort of understanding about keeping LBJ when trading for Jamison? Maybe so..but that didn’t matter. I think it’s far more likely they made this trade hoping it appeases Paul, but with no commitment from him whatsoever..sort of the exact same thing the Cavs did. Furthermore, I’d take Collison right now over Ariza with the knowledge that Collison wouldn’t improve at all. I already think he’s a better player. If Ariza has another Houston type year of shooting sub 40%, then we can’t even make the arguement that Ariza is a bigger impact than Collison would… Read more »
Rich, What I like about the trade for NO is that they were able to get a young athletic wing in Ariza for a reasonable price, plus he’s in his prime. They were able to get rid of Posey and will be paying Ariza about the same for the next two years but end up with a much better player. Ariza’s contract is a good value that doesn’t hamstring the team from making deals in the future, at his price and expected production he won’t be hard to trade in the future if needed. Jamison is/was way to expensive and… Read more »
You guys are focused on Collison as the back-up PG, which is a short term vision. I’m focused on the very real long term prospect of Collison being the starting PG in two years, and a far more valuable player than Ariza. Here is the question: Does Ariza get Paul to stay in NO in two years either by getting close or actually winning an NBA title? If the answer is no, then this is a bad deal for New Orleans. This isn’t like the Cavs bringing in Shaq who had one year left and trading away Ben Wallace and… Read more »
NO did the right thing, they traded a bad contract and a back-up pg for a starting wing. With or without CP3 after next year, they will be in a better position than they were previously. Cap room is just as important for a team that understands it has to rebuild as depth. Adding Ariza and getting some cap space to add somethng else in the future has to be motivation for CP3 to stay. But if he leaves, they still have some decent talent and flexability. The ‘mistake’ the Cavs made was not that they went after talent to… Read more »
1. LeBron is not going to be second fiddle to Wade to anyone other than the 12 Miami Heat fans who *didn’t* jump off the bandwagon over the last three seasons. The fact is that the Heat have stunk and that Wade has missed a ton of time, and those fickle Miami fans left the Heat for dead a long time ago. For all of those Heat fans that left and are coming back, LeBron is the man. And he is certainly going to be the bigger star outside of Miami, which is what matters to him anyway. This whole… Read more »
Bad move by NOH. We just saw this play out this year. Miami didn’t give in to Wade and refused to commit to long term deals to appease him. They won. The Cavs did exactly what the Hornets are doing, and lost. You don’t give in a to player until that player commits the team. If he doesn’t commit, and leaves, then you keep Collison, who in 2 years might very well be all-star caliber, and is most certainly a better player than Ariza.
Its obvious the Hornets made that trade to please Paul…they dont want to lose him and decided moving Collison away would help things…i dont blame them…gotta do what ya gotta do for the superstar….will it help them keep Paul? who knows..doubt Ariza is the answer or much improvement for the supporting cast surrounding Paul…but we’ll see In regards to Lebron’s tweet…I dont get it…so now he’s taking mental notes on legit criticisms…and yet he STILL hasn’t explained his ‘elbow injury’ or why he quit in the Boston series (specifically games 5 and 6) and why he left his team for… Read more »